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[Sponsored Report] Fun, fitness and a serious message

Amorepacific’s Pink Run raises awareness about breast cancer both in Korea and overseas

May 30,2019

From left to right: Amorepacific establishes the Korean Breast Cancer Foundation in 2000. The Global Breast Cancer Conference is now one of the biggest breast cancer conferences in Asia. The Korea Breast Cancer Foundation celebrated its 10th year anniversary in 2010. Amorepacific hosted a marathon in Busan this year to raise public awareness on the importance of early detection and women’s health. [AMOREPACIFIC]

Amorepacific is a leading Korean cosmetics and beauty brand that provides the highest-quality products and services to customers based on a management philosophy centered on contributing to humanity.

As a company that is loved and respected by customers around the world, Amorepacific has strived to fulfill its social responsibilities through various social contribution activities.

Giving back is such a major part of Amorepacific’s corporate culture that it has become the basis of how the company measures responsible management practices.

Amorepacific places a special focus on social contribution activities that aim to beautify women’s lives.

Amorepacific believes that all women are beautiful and that they make the world beautiful. The corporation supports all women under the vision: “A More Beautiful World.”

Left: A poster promotes the “2019 Makeup Your Life” campaign. Right: A makeup artist demonstrates how to use makeup and skin care products as part of the “2018 Makeup Your Life” campaign in Taiwan. [AMOREPACIFIC]

Fighting breast cancer

The cosmetics giant was responsible for establishing the Korean Breast Cancer Foundation, Korea’s first nonprofit public breast health public service foundation, and has carried out the “Pink Ribbon” campaign since 2001 to improve breast health awareness.

According to the 2016 Cancer Registration Statistics, breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in Korea, even outnumbering thyroid cancer. The early detection of breast cancer in stage one and two, results in a high cure rate at over 90 percent.

Breast cancer is not only a personal problem, but also a family and societal issue that needs the care and support of the public.

The “Pink Ribbon” campaign has been run in various ways, including helping improve breast cancer education and giving financial support for screening and surgery.

The most famous event held by the “Pink Ribbon” campaign is the Pink Run, the largest Pink Ribbon campaign event in Korea.

This year’s 19th annual Pink Run will be held in five locations across the country, providing useful information on breast health and raising awareness on the importance of early detection of breast cancer through self-examination.

Looking overseas

The Pink Run started in Korea in 2001 and was expanded to China in 2016. It has since become a global campaign that raises awareness of breast and cervical cancer.

Just like in Korea, women from areas with high rates of cancer and poverty in China can receive free examinations and education. The cancer examination program in China has been highly praised for creating economic value for families and societies and reducing the burden of treatment costs through early detection.

The “Breast Health Lecture Pink Tour” is a breast health informative program that teaches people how examine themselves for early signs of breast cancer.

Amorepacific’s “Makeup Your Life,” which celebrates its 12th year this year, is an educational makeup program that helps cancer patients who have undergone sudden changes in appearance such as hair loss.

The program helps cancer patients overcome the mental pain and depression and quickly return to their daily lives. Amore counselors and Amorepacific Educational Instructors also voluntarily participate in the “Makeup Your Life” campaign.

The “Makeup Your Life” campaign has grown to be recognized globally as a corporate outreach program. In Korea, a total of 13,585 cancer patients and 5,599 Amore counselors have participated in the campaign as of 2018.

The campaign was expanded to China in 2011, Vietnam in 2014, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2017 and Thailand in 2018.

The company has delivered a hopeful message to 15,743 cancer patients from seven countries, including Korea, for more than 10 years. The campaign will be expanded to Malaysia this year.

Economic independence

Amorepacific contributes to gender equality and to women’s health, well-being and economic independence to make their lives more prosperous and beautiful. Amorepacific’s call to make women’s lives beautiful has continued since its foundation.

Amorepacific has also run various programs to promote the importance of early breast cancer screening for women in their 20s and 30s and to provide self-examination methods and breast health education to help women in their 30s and 40s detect breast cancer at an early stage.

The company has provided screening and surgery costs for women in their 40s and 50s and operated a psychological recovery support program for women in their 50s to help them to live healthy and happy lives.

Amorepacific has carried out activities to improve women’s self-reliance and gender equality through professional educational support. The “Hope Shop” project provides start-up loans for single mothers and financial support for start-up founders and their families to ensure support for single mothers. From 2008, the company has run the “Beautiful Life” project to support social welfare organizations that provide vocational training and education programs to support the employment of vulnerable women.

Amorepacific’s corporate goal is to become a great company that transforms the world. As a part of that effort, in 2017 it announced its “20 by 20” plan to fulfill social responsibilities as a global corporation. This was a promise to make women’s lives beautiful by supporting health and well-being and strengthening the economic capacity of 200,000 women all over the world from 2017 to 2020.

It launched the “Makeup Your Life” campaign and “Pink Ribbon” campaign to support women’s health and well-being. It also operates “Hope Shop,” “Beautiful Life” and the “Let Makeup Artist on the Go” programs for 20,000 people annually to strengthen women’s economic capacity by spending at least 7 billion won ($5.9 million) and supporting 50,000 employees from 2017 to 2020.

Amorepacific is expanding its social contribution activities for women’s health and well-being globally with its overseas subsidiaries. In addition, it has been trying to make a positive impact on families and the community as well.

Amorepacific was also selected in August 2017 to participate in the United Nations “Every Woman Every Child” movement. It will continue to expand its social contribution activities to fulfill its commitment as a global corporate citizen.